LSAC modifying LOR system starting in Sept.

brothernads

Not sure if this is a big deal to anyone, but here is the lowdown from LSAC's website:

Letter of Recommendation Options Expanding in September

The LSAC letter of recommendation (LOR) service is offered as a convenience to LSDAS registrants, recommendation-letter writers, and law schools. Starting in late-September 2004, law school candidates will be able to use their LSAC online accounts to direct letters of recommendation to specific law schools based on each school’s requirements or preferences. Different letters can also be directed to different schools based on the intended use of the letter; for example:

1. A student who interned for the Department of Environmental Protection might ask a professor to write a specific letter, including information about the internship, to a law school that offers an environmental law specialty. The description of the letter would be: “For Smith School of Law's Environmental Law Program.”

2. A professor might be a law school graduate and want to recommend the applicant to her alma mater. The description of this letter might be: “For Smith School of Law.”

Previously, LSAC would accept only one letter per recommender--up to three letters total—which were sent to law schools based on the order they were received. Now, a candidate may have up to four general letters on file in addition to numerous directed letters. Multiple LORs from a single recommender will be accepted. This provides the opportunity to request both general and targeted letters from each recommender.

In the absence of any specific designations, LSAC will send general letters in the order they are received, up to the number of letters each school will accept. Letters received prior to September 28 (the projected start date for the new service), will be used as general letters (up to a total of four, in the order they are received) for any law school report requests that come in before that date. Then, once the new service starts, candidates can designate those letters as targeted letters for subsequent use according to each law school’s preference. Each law school’s LOR preferences will be indicated to the candidate onscreen during the process.

Letters must be received by LSAC at least two weeks prior to a school’s application deadline in order for LSAC to ensure that the letters will be sent to the school before its deadline.

LSAC will continue to accept copies of letters from undergraduate school credential services or career planning offices.

Candidates can monitor the status of their letters in the Account Status area of their LSAC online account.